The building, in its position along Pearl Street downtown, acts as a city flood wall. The flooding forced the building managers to shut down the electricity and evacuate some 20 condominiums and the offices of Oppenheimer and Co., Inc.

Oppenheimer branch manager Jim Smilde said Thursday, May 2, that their 21 employees are preparing to move back in on Monday after two weeks of operating out of sister offices in Kalamazoo and East Lansing.

“The power came back on yesterday and we expect to be fully operational with staff on Monday,” Smilde said. His office, which occupies the first and second floors of the riverfront building, sustained no flood damage, he said.

“I’m happy to say we haven’t missed a beat during all of this,” Smilde said. “We’ve been operational the whole time. We missed no client service issues.”

It was not clear when the residents of the Forslund Condominiums will move back in. Attempts to reach the association and its property managers for comment were not successful.

The Forslund Building was the first downtown office building to convert to condominiums in the 1980s. Since then, hundreds of other condominium and housing units have been developed.

April’s record flooding on the Grand River marked the first time the building was evacuated for flooding.

Elsewhere in downtown Grand Rapids, some 1,000 residents of Plaza Towers’ apartments and condominiums were told they may be able to move back home by next Wednesday, May 8.

The 32-story apartment, condominium and hotel complex was shut down April 20 after the lower level was allowed to flood.